Lauren Kok (22) was killed when the car she was travelling in slammed into a tree

A fledgling nurse, she had hoped one day to become skilled enough to provide on-the-spot medical care at disasters and emergencies.

But those hopes, and her life, were cut short in an alleged drunken-driving wreck in Virginia that also killed a 25-year-old man over the weekend.

Vacationing Lauren Kok, 22 -- a Tottenville native who just two months ago graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor's degree in nursing -- died early Saturday morning when the car in which she was riding slammed into a tree in Norfolk.

Another passenger, Cameron Richardson of Chesapeake, Va., also died, while the car's driver and two other passengers were injured.

"Lauren is a perfect, perfect, perfect person," said her mother, Janice, at the family's Tottenville home yesterday afternoon.

Ms. Kok had started just three weeks ago as a nurse manager at Richmond Home Needs in Oakwood, her family said.

And after recently doing volunteer work during Fleet Week, she had thought about getting U.S. Navy training to become a "flight nurse," a highly trained registered nurse who goes out as part of a helicopter or airplane crew to respond to emergencies, according to her father, Simon Kok, a retired NYPD detective.

"She wanted to help the country," her mother said.

The driver of the car, 24-year-old Richard B. Freeman, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence after the crash, and could face additional, more serious, charges pending an investigation.

Police in Norfolk say Freeman was behind the wheel of the black BMW at about 2:15 a.m. Richardson was in the front passenger seat, while Ms. Kok and two others sat in the back, police said.